Ex-King’s Horseman, 57, who raped three teenage girls at riding school in the 1980s is jailed for 10 years
- James Armour, 57, raped three trainee instructors in Fife, Scotland, in the 1980s
- He was sentenced to ten years at the High Court in Glasgow on Wednesday
A former King’s horseman who raped three trainee instructors at a riding school has been jailed for ten years.
James Armour struck at the centre in Fife while on leave from the Army in the 1980s.
He was eventually caught after one victim reported her ordeal to Rape Crisis in 2019.
Armour, 57, was yesterday sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow, having earlier been convicted after a trial in Stirling of raping the three young trainees between 1983 and 1989. They were aged between 17 and 19 at the time.
Armour, known as ‘Chris’, had been a bombardier in the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery.
Armour, 57, was yesterday sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow, having earlier been convicted after a trial in Stirling of raping the three young trainees between 1983 and 1989
The unit is known for its horse teams pulling guns on royal state occasions, taking part in Trooping the Colour as well as mounted guards on Horse Guards Parade. Armour had also represented Britain as an Army showjumper.
Judge Lord Young said he had left the victims suffering ‘real physical and emotional damage’.
He added: ‘These rapes followed a pattern. You stayed [there] while on leave and had access to attack the trainees. It is clear the women, despite the passage of many years, found it upsetting to repeat what you had done.
‘One had said, for years, she had kept to herself what happened as she felt no one would believe her.
‘The jury did believe her and the evidence of the others.’
The victim who went to Rape Crisis, now 57, told how Armour walked into a stable where she was working, assaulted and raped her.
The second victim, now aged 59, and the third woman, now 57, were attacked in their bedrooms at the centre.
The 59-year-old said: ‘In those days, there was not any help. You shut up. You got on with your life.’
Armour, of Congleton, Cheshire, claimed during the trial all three were ‘fantasists’.
He was put on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
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